Science Quickly

At an April 9th event sponsored by the Kavli Foundation and produced by Scientific American that honored Nobel and Kavli Prize winners, economist Paul Romer talked about how the social system of science offers hope for humanity and for how we can live with each other. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At extreme pressures, potassium atoms can be both liquid and solid at the same time, a phase of matter known as "chain melt." Christopher Intagliata reports.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Coyotes become fearless around people in just a few generations—which isn’t good for their longterm co-existence with humans in cities. Jason G. Goldman reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

NYU’s “Sounds of New York City” project listens to the city—and then, with the help of citizen scientists, teaches machines to decode the soundscape. Jim Daley reports.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hydrogen peroxide in whitening treatments penetrates enamel and dentin, and alters tooth proteins. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Light tuned to a specific frequency warms ice more than water—which could come in handy for defrosting delicate biological samples. Adam Levy reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The monkeys lower the pitch of their "whinnies" when they're far from the rest of their group, which might help the calls travel further through jungle foliage. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Food chemists precisely measured how charcoal filtration contributes to Tennessee whiskey's smoother flavor. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

English lacks some words that other languages pack with meaning. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Scientists tracked bumblebee queens with radar when they emerged from hibernation and found the bees take only brief flights en route to a new nest. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tracking the location and mood of 15,000 people, researchers found that scenic beauty was linked to happiness—including near urban sights like bridges and buildings. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We don't yet know what the immersion in technology does to our brains, but one neuroscientist says the answer is likely to be that there's good, there's bad, and it's complex. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

During daylight hours, hundreds of bombardier beetles of multiple species will congregate together to more effectively ward off any predators not afraid of a lone beetle's toxic spray. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When jets of charged particles from the sun hit our magnetosphere, some of the ensuing ripples travel toward the northern and southern poles and get reflected back. The resulting interference allows standing waves to form, like on a drumhead. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By tracking duetting choir singers, researchers found that when an individual singer's pitch drifts off tune their partner’s tend to too. Christopher Intagliata reports.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Researchers aiming to lower the cost of mealworms were able to double the worms' size, but the larger larvae had fewer eggs and weaker offspring. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new model suggests smashing killer space rocks with insufficient force could let gravity pull the pieces back together. Christopher Intagliata reports.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Weekday sleep deprivation with weekend make-up sleeping seems to be worse for blood sugar control than even chronic sleep deprivation alone. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thyroid hormone, which helps warm-blooded animals regulate body temperature, also appears to put a halt on heart regeneration. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By analyzing nearly 2.5 billion Wikipedia page views, researchers found species searches reflect seasonal animal migrations and plant blooming. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At a sports technology conference, baseball commissioner Rob Manfred addressed issues including an automated strike zone and advanced analytics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Volunteers who listened to music solved fewer word puzzles than others who worked in silence. Christopher Intagliata reports.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A few brief reports about international science and technology from Greenland to Palau, including one on the discovery of a trove of mummified cats in Egypt. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Biologists have taken the genes that produce cannabinoids in weed and plugged them into yeast, making rare and novel compounds more accessible. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Humans traveling to Mars will be required to operate with a degree of autonomy human astronauts have never had, due to communication delays. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices